Daze

Daze is a 50% snaredebuff, which often forces its target to dismount if mounted. All mobs have a chance of applying daze when they hit a player in melee range that is facing away from the mob. The daze mechanic is intended to prevent players from carelessly running past large groups of mobs.

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All mob creatures have a chance to daze on each melee hit, ranging from 0% to a maximum 40%. Chance to daze is a function of player level, creature weapon skill and player base defense skill. A creature's weapon skill is its level times 5. For example, a level 70 creature has an attack skill of 350. A player's base defense skill is capped at his level times 5, and can be increased through some class talents and gear or other enhancements that have defense rating.

Base chance to daze is 20% given that the mob weapon skill and player defense skill are equal. As the player's defense skill increases relative to the mob's weapon skill, chance to daze decreases to a minimum of zero. As defense skill decreases relative to weapon skill, chance to daze increases to a maximum of 40%. This effectively makes chance to daze a function of level difference - mobs that are below a player's level have less chance to daze, while mobs above his level have a higher chance, with equal level mobs having the base 20% chance.

The base chance of 20% is decreased for players under level 30. As a given example, a level 10 player running from a level 10 mob will only have a 7% chance to be dazed.

The daze check uses a player's total defense skill rather than base defense skill, meaning players with high defense rating from equipment, such as tanks, have a lower chance of being dazed. This means tanks will have an easier time repositioning mobs in instances without being repeatedly dazed.[1]

A player can only be dazed from behind and within melee range of the attacking mob. This is most common when running away from it, but it can also happen while standing still if the mob approaches from behind, or when backing up if the mob overshoots you while following you. Due to server latency, it can sometimes appear that a mob has dazed from a long distance, or in front of the player.

It has been confirmed that friendly mobs (for escort quests for example) can daze other mobs that are running away. It also seems that daze debuff can't be applied by a mob if you are "Immune" (such as with a Paladin Divine Shield or Mage Ice Block), if you "Resist" the hit, or if all the damage from the hit is Absorbed.

Dazing effects are notorious in PvP settings, especially in Warsong Gulch. Flag runners are usually hit with these abilities, leaving them vulnerable to attack from the opposing team.

Some playable classes have abilities that apply a daze debuff as well. However, player dazes do not dismount others the same way creature daze does, nor is the daze effect immune to skills/items that remove movement impairements or harmful spell effects.

The Rogue Combat talent Blade Twisting gives each of the rogue's damaging melee attacks a 10% chance to daze a target for 4/8 seconds.

A Paladin's Avenger's Shield can daze 3 targets if the Paladin equips the proper Glyph.

Mages have the talent-trained Blast Wave which dazes all enemies in an area.

Patch 3.3.0 (08-Dec-2009): Creatures attacking a player from behind can no longer cause players level 1-5 to be dazed, and have a reduced chance to cause players level 6-10 to be dazed.

Patch 1.7.0 (13-Sep-2005): Fixed a bug where the Dazed ability used by creatures when attacking targets from behind was countered/dispelled by some spells (e.g. Blessing of Freedom).

Patch 1.6.0 (12-Jul-2005): The Dazed effect caused by NPCs will now stack with all other movement slowing effects. Note that the movement slowing effects will not stack, but the debuff icons will remain to ensure the full duration of these effects persist.